"I expect you will never comprehend me," he said at last, stopping
before Angela, "In fact, I confess sometimes I do not comprehend
myself. Of course Sylvie is good and pure--I know that;--I should
not be so violently in love with her if she were not--but I do not
see that her acceptance of me as a lover would make her anything
else than good and pure. Because I know that she would be faithful
to me."
"Faithful to you--yes!--while you were faithless to her!" said
Angela, with a generous indignation in her voice, "You would expect
her to be true while you amused yourself with other women. A one-
sided arrangement truly!"
The Marquis seemed unmoved.
"Every relation between the sexes is one-sided," he declared, "It is
not my fault! The woman gives all to one,--the man gives a little to
many. I really am not to blame for falling in with this general
course of things. You look very angry with me, Donna Sovrani, and
your eyes positively abash me;--you are very loyal to your friend
and I admire you for it; but after all, why should you be so hard
upon me? I am no worse than Varillo."
Angela started, and her cheeks crimsoned.
"Than Varillo? What do you mean?"
"Well, Varillo has Pon-Pon,--of course she is useful--what he would
do without her I am sure I cannot imagine,--still she IS Pon-Pon.
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